Citizenship Education in Bahrain: A Study of Textbooks and Public Debates (2001-2017)

This thesis is about citizenship education in Bahrain and the public debates surrounding it from the year 2001 until 2017. Citizenship education in Bahrain has received a considerable attention since the reform project of King Hamad Al Khalifa has established on 2001. Over all reforms of the education sector, an independent curriculum for citizenship education was a major reform in the country. In 2004, the new curriculum of citizenship education was introduced in schools. Since the introduction of citizenship education until current time, there are many developments and changes in the content. The bases of these changes are the dynamic of the subjects as well as the input of multiple experts in the directorate of curriculum in the ministry of education. This thesis provide an analysis for all school textbooks content from grade one until grade ten, in which last editions of each textbooks were used. The analysis provides strengthens and weaknesses of topics in each grade. Finally, it provides general remarks concerning the content. In addition, the thesis presented a comparison between content of previous editions and the last editions of advance levels (grade 7-10). The other part of the thesis discussed the public debate about citizenship education in Bahrain, through presenting the major academic studies conducted by educational specialists from Bahrain and abroad in the same field and some prominent newspapers (Al Wasat and Al Ayam) articles written about citizenship education. This part of the thesis provides the public perception concerning citizenship in general and citizenship education in particular. This study also showed the measurements taken by ministry of education as response to the need of development and change in citizenship education curriculum. However, these measurements have not met the demands of the public and the study found that there is lack of coherence, which broadens the debate.